Archive for August, 2009

       In the current political climate where pettiness, careerism and obfuscation rule, Sen. Edward “Teddy ” Kennedy did something radical.  He actually dared to stand for something — that as a United States Senator it was his duty to make the world a better place. 
      Most of the landmark bills he worked on during his  46-year history as a senator dealt with civil rights, health care, education. He cared about the disabled and those lost outside society’s safety net.
     His speeches were impassioned — eloquent. They felt torn from the gut. 
    And even during the years marred by catastrophic scandals and tragedies – before he married Victoria Anne Reggie and finally rose to become the senator we mourn today, the seeds of greatness could still be seen. 
     In 1980, while ending his bid for the Presidency, he made one eof his most memorable speeches.  He told the roaring, mourning crowd:   “For those whose cares have been our concern — The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives — and the dream shall never die….”
     Teddy Kennedy.  You Kept the Faith….
   

Salita Vs.Munoz, May 24, 2009 - Photo by Mary Ann Owen

     When you ask Dmitriy Salita how he is doing, he answers with a fervent: ”Fine, Thank God.”   It’s not just an expression of speech. For Boxing champion Dmitriy “Star of David” Salita is a believer. 
      His whole life is one of devotion — from the Judaism he embraced after he came to this country from the Ukraine to Boxing — the sweet science that has catapulted him to fame  in the United States.  Soft-spoken and gentlemanly, the 27-year-old Junior Welterweight — who is undefeated this year with a record of 30-0 — sees no contradiction in being a devout Jew and his obsession with a sport that turns him into a predator in the ring.  
       “Religion is integrated with everything you do,” Salita said during a recent telephone interview. “It’s a very false idea that it is only practiced in a synagogue. Religion is practiced in every field that you’re in. You take what you learn in the synagogue into the street.
      “It’s a step by step process. It helps develop and improve you as a human being.”
      It hasn’t been an easy path. Because of increasing anti-semitism, his family left Odessa when he was 9 and settled in Brooklyn. They struggled — with the culture — and lack of money. Someone gave him a boxing glove when he was 13 — and the rest — as they say is History.

         Finding a Dream

         But the seeds of that passion were planted earlier — in Odessa. He told an interviewer he remembers running through the snow  pretending to be Rocky. In Brooklyn, he discovered the Starrett City Boxing Club and Jimmy O’Pharrow,  the African-American coach who famously said: “Salita looks Russian, prays Jewish and fights black.”
      “I came to Starrett City and I met O’Pharrow when I was 13,” says Salita.  He didn’t immediately become a mentor. It happened step-by-step. Jimmy recognized my abilities and my hard work…  He saw something in me and developed it,” Salita says.  He moved through the ranks quickly, winning a Bronze medal at the Junior Olympics when he was 16 and a Golden Gloves title 3 years later.
      When he was a teenager, Salita’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Before she died, his mother asked O’Pharrow to look after him. O’Pharrow did that, watching over his protégé with a gruff tenderness.  Salita, who also trains with Francisco Guzman, remains extremely close with O’Pharrow.  ”Jimmy is like my grandfather,” says Salita.  “He will always be in my life. He’s someone that I love. He taught me a lot about life. Jimmy is a great person — someone I continue to learn from.”
      It was in his mother’s hospital room which she shared with a Chabad Lubavitch woman that Salita connected with his Judaism in a profound way.
        He goes to services every day now at the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn and refuses to fight on the Sabbath.  “The Chabad Lubavitch outlook — they are very orthodox. They know the value of every person — they don’t judge.”
 
        Still Hungry                
                          
      A Salita boxing match draws more than just the usual suspects.   Much of his fan base comes from the orthodox community. Kids dressed in yeshiva garb and grey bearded rabbis mingle with Brooklyn hip hoppers and boxing aficionados. When he is introduced, an Israeli flag comes out and Israeli music is played. His fans call him ‘Dima’ and ‘Kid Kosher’ and of course Dmitriy, ‘Star of David’ Salita.
     He’s the subject of a documentary “Orthodox Stance,” and an HBO special. But he’s still hungry. He still wants more. He wants, he says, a shot at the Title.  He wants to be World Champion.
    That opportunity may come soon — later this year in London — when he will fight Amir Khan, the current Junior Welterweight world champion. “I look forward to my title shot,” says Salita.  “That should be the most exciting night — as it has been my dream my whole life.”

     Sixty-four years ago today, the  Japanese  surrendered and New York erupted in a frenzy of joyous celebration.   Strangers kissed  strangers and  strangers together mourned  and remembered their losses.
     In a world  now where the big question is ‘What’s the New New?’ nobody thinks much about World War Two anymore. Unless , of course, a Spielberg or Tarantino make a  movie about it.
        In a touching article in The New York Times  today,  veteran Albert Perdeck talks about how traumatized he still is by the memories he has from the war – and how he has struggled to get anyone to pay attention to remembering this date: August 14, 1945 — otherwise known as VJ-Day.
      The  retired postal worker, who fought in the Pacific, and now lives in  New Jersey, told The New York Times: ” Attention Must Be Paid.”   He told ‘The Times’  he can still hear the cries of his fellow soldiers who were wounded, lost, mutilated.   He was only 19 during that war. Now he’s 84.  He can still see the mangled bodies of friends and fellow soldiers, he says  – and those he killed. 
         So — for Albert Perdeck — and all the other forgotten soldiers. Let us remember…..

     Playwright Lynn Nottage went to Uganda in 2004 to interview women living in the refugee camps there who have fled the brutality of the Congolese Civil war.   That war, which has claimed more than 5 million lives — is considered the world’s worst conflict since WWII. Violence against women — especially sexual violence — has been a particularly horrific part of that conflict.
      “Ruined,” the searing work for which she won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama, is the result of that trip.   Rape has been one of the cruelest weapons soldiers, on both sides, have used against Congolese women — often forcing them into exile from their families and communities. 
      That’s what all the women gathered at Mama Nadi’s — the central character surviving by her wits — and who owns a brothel — have in common. They have all been raped. They are all ‘ruined.’ And they are so alive.
      Nottage, who was awarded a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant in 2007, captures their struggle — and their sorrows — as they try to survive the brutality and the horror all around them.
      The playwright told The New York Times in an interview: “So much writing about Africa is like pornography, depicting only the violence. I also wanted to show the beauty, how gorgeous it is.”
     “Ruined,” originated at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and is now at Manhattan Theatre Club.  The play, directed by Kate Whoriskey, is loosely based on Bertold Brecht’s “Mother Courage.”
     Go see “Ruined.” It will leave you heartbroken — and exalted. It’s playing until September 6.